Orioles of the past and present reflect on the club's tenure in Baltimore

Baltimore Sun file photo

By Mike Klingaman, The Baltimore Sun Sixty years ago, the Orioles stank. They lost 100 games, couldn't hit a lick and finished 57 games back in the 1954 season. Good thing. Had they done better, Brooks Robinson might have gone elsewhere. Robinson, 18, signed with the club in May 1955, believing his ascent to the big leagues would be faster with the Orioles than elsewhere. "I remember sitting with my dad and [first-year manager] Paul Richards, who said: 'If you have some ability, you can play here [in Baltimore] quickly because we're not very good,' " Robinson recalled. To prove it, a month later, the Orioles played an exhibition game against the York (Pa.) White Roses, their Class B farm team, and lost, 13-1. Robinson had two hits for York, including a 380-foot home run off starter Joe Coleman, who was promptly released. Come September, Robinson was recalled by the parent club, the ninth of 10 third basemen the Orioles used that season. He went 2-for-4 in his debut against the Washington Senators and thought he'd arrived. He went hitless (0-for-18, with 10 strikeouts) the rest of the year. "Lesson learned," he said. The 1955 Orioles tried 101 different lineups and staggered home with 97 losses. Yet Robinson, who would spend the rest of the decade straddling the majors and minors before settling into a Hall of Fame career, shrugged off defeat. "I was living my dream," he said. "What other team would have given me the chance to play at 18? Being young, playing every day is all you think about, not winning or losing. "But in the back of my mind, I was thinking, 'We're going to get better.' I mean, you can't lose 100 games every year; it's just impossible. Nobody can keep being that bad." In 1957, the Orioles climbed to .500, a heady accomplishment for a historically dreadful franchise that had managed just 11 winners in 52 years as the St. Louis Browns before moving to Baltimore in 1954. Give credit to Richards, the Orioles' pilot for six-and-a-half seasons, Robinson said. Richards, also the general manager, shook the club to its senses, built a farm system that would serve the Orioles for decades and traded for anyone who might hold the team together until kids such as Robinson matured. "Paul was the best manager I ever played for. He never got a lot of respect because he never won a World Series, but I thought he was God," Robinson said. "He knew every position and what made it tick. He was a wheeler-dealer and a master at picking up pitchers who were over the hill -- like Hal ["Skinny"] Brown and Connie Johnson -- and making them better." Richards made 48 deals in his first two years, including a historic 17-player trade that sent the Orioles' two best players -- pitchers Bob Turley and Don Larsen -- to the New York Yankees for slugging catcher Gus Triandos and a cast of mostly nobodies. Fans decried the move -- Turley would win a Cy Young Award and Larsen pitched a perfect game in the 1956 World Series -- but Robinson defends it still. "The early Birds were outclassed in every area. They were the old Browns and they picked up right where the Browns had left off," he said. "They just didn't have enough talent. Richards saw that and said, 'Let's do something dramatic.' He thought he could bring in [mediocre] guys and help them become good players." The crafty Richards also dealt for aging third baseman George Kell, a future Hall of Famer and, like Robinson, an Arkansan who arrived in 1956 to mentor his sure-handed successor. "George took me under his wing, on and off the field," Robinson said. "He related what it was like to be a big league player, and he took me to see my first stage play in New York." Robinson learned quickly. Opening Day in 1957 found him playing third base, with Kell moved to first. By mid-1959, Robinson was here to stay and the farm was cranking out "Baby Birds" such as shortstop Ron Hansen (1960 American League Rookie of the Year) and pitchers Milt Pappas, Jerry Walker, Steve Barber and Jack Fisher. Though they finished sixth, the Orioles were poised for a run at the pennant in 1960, when Robinson batted .294, made the All-Star team, won a Gold Glove and placed third in the Most Valuable Player voting behind the Yankees' Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle. "Looking back on those years, I was up and down for a while, but Richards knew what was best for me and for others," Robinson said. "When I got back [from the minors] in 1959, I was a better, stronger player. "Paul really knew what he was doing. He laid the groundwork for what was to come." mike.klingaman@baltsun.com For year-by-year capsules from the 1950s, click here.

By Mike Klingaman, The Baltimore Sun Sixty years ago, the Orioles stank. They lost 100 games, couldn't hit a lick and finished 57 games back in the 1954 season. Good thing. Had they done better, Brooks Robinson might have gone elsewhere. Robinson, 18, signed with the club in May 1955, believing his ascent to the big leagues would be faster with the Orioles than elsewhere. "I remember sitting with my dad and [first-year manager] Paul Richards, who said: 'If you have some ability, you can play here [in Baltimore] quickly because we're not very good,' " Robinson recalled. To prove it, a month later, the Orioles played an exhibition game against the York (Pa.) White Roses, their Class B farm team, and lost, 13-1. Robinson had two hits for York, including a 380-foot home run off starter Joe Coleman, who was promptly released. Come September, Robinson was recalled by the parent club, the ninth of 10 third basemen the Orioles used that season. He went 2-for-4 in his debut against the Washington Senators and thought he'd arrived. He went hitless (0-for-18, with 10 strikeouts) the rest of the year. "Lesson learned," he said. The 1955 Orioles tried 101 different lineups and staggered home with 97 losses. Yet Robinson, who would spend the rest of the decade straddling the majors and minors before settling into a Hall of Fame career, shrugged off defeat. "I was living my dream," he said. "What other team would have given me the chance to play at 18? Being young, playing every day is all you think about, not winning or losing. "But in the back of my mind, I was thinking, 'We're going to get better.' I mean, you can't lose 100 games every year; it's just impossible. Nobody can keep being that bad." In 1957, the Orioles climbed to .500, a heady accomplishment for a historically dreadful franchise that had managed just 11 winners in 52 years as the St. Louis Browns before moving to Baltimore in 1954. Give credit to Richards, the Orioles' pilot for six-and-a-half seasons, Robinson said. Richards, also the general manager, shook the club to its senses, built a farm system that would serve the Orioles for decades and traded for anyone who might hold the team together until kids such as Robinson matured. "Paul was the best manager I ever played for. He never got a lot of respect because he never won a World Series, but I thought he was God," Robinson said. "He knew every position and what made it tick. He was a wheeler-dealer and a master at picking up pitchers who were over the hill -- like Hal ["Skinny"] Brown and Connie Johnson -- and making them better." Richards made 48 deals in his first two years, including a historic 17-player trade that sent the Orioles' two best players -- pitchers Bob Turley and Don Larsen -- to the New York Yankees for slugging catcher Gus Triandos and a cast of mostly nobodies. Fans decried the move -- Turley would win a Cy Young Award and Larsen pitched a perfect game in the 1956 World Series -- but Robinson defends it still. "The early Birds were outclassed in every area. They were the old Browns and they picked up right where the Browns had left off," he said. "They just didn't have enough talent. Richards saw that and said, 'Let's do something dramatic.' He thought he could bring in [mediocre] guys and help them become good players." The crafty Richards also dealt for aging third baseman George Kell, a future Hall of Famer and, like Robinson, an Arkansan who arrived in 1956 to mentor his sure-handed successor. "George took me under his wing, on and off the field," Robinson said. "He related what it was like to be a big league player, and he took me to see my first stage play in New York." Robinson learned quickly. Opening Day in 1957 found him playing third base, with Kell moved to first. By mid-1959, Robinson was here to stay and the farm was cranking out "Baby Birds" such as shortstop Ron Hansen (1960 American League Rookie of the Year) and pitchers Milt Pappas, Jerry Walker, Steve Barber and Jack Fisher. Though they finished sixth, the Orioles were poised for a run at the pennant in 1960, when Robinson batted .294, made the All-Star team, won a Gold Glove and placed third in the Most Valuable Player voting behind the Yankees' Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle. "Looking back on those years, I was up and down for a while, but Richards knew what was best for me and for others," Robinson said. "When I got back [from the minors] in 1959, I was a better, stronger player. "Paul really knew what he was doing. He laid the groundwork for what was to come." mike.klingaman@baltsun.com For year-by-year capsules from the 1950s, click here. (Baltimore Sun file photo)

By Mike Klingaman, The Baltimore Sun When Paul Blair squeezed the fly ball for the final out in the 1966 World Series, Brooks Robinson leaped toward heaven and the home crowd of 54,458 rose as one and roared. Downtown, car horns blared and revelers raced through the streets, throwing confetti and firecrackers amid shouts of "Birds! Birds! Birds!" The Orioles had come of age. When the 1960s began, the Orioles had never had a winning season. Ten years, two pennants and a world championship later, they'd emerged as the American League's winningest team of the decade (911 victories, 698 defeats). "It was a time of transformation," said slugger Boog Powell, who signed with the Orioles in 1959 and stayed for 16 years. "We began [the decade] searching for an identity." The club found it, reaching contention with a core of homegrown players and taking the final step with the famed trade for 1961 National League Most Valuable Player Frank Robinson, whom the Cincinnati Reds general manager termed "an old 30." The outfielder put the Orioles on top with his bat (.316, 49 home runs and 122 RBIs, good for the Triple Crown in 1966) and an us-versus-them demeanor that galvanized teammates who took his mantra to heart. "In years past, our guys would yakety-yak with other teams' players before the game. Or they'd get on base, stand there and blah-blah-blah with the infielders," Powell said. "Frank saw that and said, 'What's all this socializing crap with the other team? Screw that. We're out there to beat their ass.' "With Frank, it was, 'No more Mr. Nice Guy. Play hard.' Not that we hadn't been. But I think we went the extra mile after he got there." The Orioles had challenged before. In 1960, they won 89 games, spent more than a month in first place and, in September, swept three games from New York to wrest the lead from the Yankees before falling to second. Bumper stickers trumpeted, "It Can Be Done In '61!" But their 95 victories that season landed the Orioles in third place. After two futile seasons, they surged to 97 wins in 1964 and, buoyed by an MVP season from Brooks Robinson, finished two games back under new manager Hank Bauer, a cigar-smoking ex-Marine and former Yankee whose mien rattled the Orioles' cage, much as Frank Robinson would do later. "Hank was a big difference-maker. He was gruff, and what he said wasn't always pretty, but it was right on the money," said Powell, whose 39 home runs led the team that year. "He brought that Yankee mystique and winning attitude. 'Ain't no singing [on the bus] if we lose,' he'd say. "He made us wear coats and ties on the road, which nobody liked. But he treated us like men and expected us to act like men. He told us: 'If you walk into a bar and I'm there, don't leave. Buy me a drink and then leave.'" In 1965, the Orioles won 94 games and came close, but -- despite Bauer's presence -- no cigar. Robinson's offseason arrival from the Reds changed that. He homered on Opening Day, became in May the first player to hit a ball completely out of Memorial Stadium, and twice that summer fell into the stands at Yankee Stadium while making game-saving catches. But Robinson also lightened the mood, introducing the "kangaroo court" after games in the clubhouse. "Frank was the judge and wore a mop on his head. He'd fine guys a dollar for stuff like stranding a runner on third base with less than two outs," Powell said. "We only held court if we won, and it seemed like one reason we wanted to win was because we wanted to go to kangaroo court." The Orioles were 58-29 at the All-Star break and clinched the pennant Sept. 22. Down the stretch, Powell slammed three home runs in a 4-2 victory at Boston, cheered on by his wife, Jan, who'd made the trip eight months pregnant. "Frank took the pressure off of everybody, on the field and off. We started having fun," said Powell, who, with 34 homers and 109 RBIs, finished third in MVP voting behind teammates the media had dubbed the "Swish Family Robinson," Frank and Brooks. In their World Series sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Orioles played error-free ball -- becoming the second team to do so in the Series -- and shut out the Dodgers for the last 33 innings. A slump in 1967 and slow start the next year led new manager Earl Weaver to come in midseason. "Nobody could outmanage Earl," Powell said. The 1969 Orioles won 109 games and finished 19 games on top -- the most since the 1936 Yankees -- before being upset in the World Series by the New York Mets. "We were flat, but the Mets [who'd won 100 games] weren't exactly chopped liver," Powell said. "Back home, there were probably 5,000 people waiting for us at the airport, holding up signs and crying. We stayed there for half an hour, shaking their hands through the fence and crying, too. That's the closest I ever felt to the city of Baltimore." But it's memories of the 1966 Orioles that he holds most dear. Of those 25 players, 17 survive. "I look at the team picture, and the guys who are gone, and my heart just aches," Powell said. "They were part of something really special." mike.klingaman@baltsun.com For year-by-year capsules from the 1960s, click here.

By Mike Klingaman, The Baltimore Sun When Paul Blair squeezed the fly ball for the final out in the 1966 World Series, Brooks Robinson leaped toward heaven and the home crowd of 54,458 rose as one and roared. Downtown, car horns blared and revelers raced through the streets, throwing confetti and firecrackers amid shouts of "Birds! Birds! Birds!" The Orioles had come of age. When the 1960s began, the Orioles had never had a winning season. Ten years, two pennants and a world championship later, they'd emerged as the American League's winningest team of the decade (911 victories, 698 defeats). "It was a time of transformation," said slugger Boog Powell, who signed with the Orioles in 1959 and stayed for 16 years. "We began [the decade] searching for an identity." The club found it, reaching contention with a core of homegrown players and taking the final step with the famed trade for 1961 National League Most Valuable Player Frank Robinson, whom the Cincinnati Reds general manager termed "an old 30." The outfielder put the Orioles on top with his bat (.316, 49 home runs and 122 RBIs, good for the Triple Crown in 1966) and an us-versus-them demeanor that galvanized teammates who took his mantra to heart. "In years past, our guys would yakety-yak with other teams' players before the game. Or they'd get on base, stand there and blah-blah-blah with the infielders," Powell said. "Frank saw that and said, 'What's all this socializing crap with the other team? Screw that. We're out there to beat their ass.' "With Frank, it was, 'No more Mr. Nice Guy. Play hard.' Not that we hadn't been. But I think we went the extra mile after he got there." The Orioles had challenged before. In 1960, they won 89 games, spent more than a month in first place and, in September, swept three games from New York to wrest the lead from the Yankees before falling to second. Bumper stickers trumpeted, "It Can Be Done In '61!" But their 95 victories that season landed the Orioles in third place. After two futile seasons, they surged to 97 wins in 1964 and, buoyed by an MVP season from Brooks Robinson, finished two games back under new manager Hank Bauer, a cigar-smoking ex-Marine and former Yankee whose mien rattled the Orioles' cage, much as Frank Robinson would do later. "Hank was a big difference-maker. He was gruff, and what he said wasn't always pretty, but it was right on the money," said Powell, whose 39 home runs led the team that year. "He brought that Yankee mystique and winning attitude. 'Ain't no singing [on the bus] if we lose,' he'd say. "He made us wear coats and ties on the road, which nobody liked. But he treated us like men and expected us to act like men. He told us: 'If you walk into a bar and I'm there, don't leave. Buy me a drink and then leave.'" In 1965, the Orioles won 94 games and came close, but -- despite Bauer's presence -- no cigar. Robinson's offseason arrival from the Reds changed that. He homered on Opening Day, became in May the first player to hit a ball completely out of Memorial Stadium, and twice that summer fell into the stands at Yankee Stadium while making game-saving catches. But Robinson also lightened the mood, introducing the "kangaroo court" after games in the clubhouse. "Frank was the judge and wore a mop on his head. He'd fine guys a dollar for stuff like stranding a runner on third base with less than two outs," Powell said. "We only held court if we won, and it seemed like one reason we wanted to win was because we wanted to go to kangaroo court." The Orioles were 58-29 at the All-Star break and clinched the pennant Sept. 22. Down the stretch, Powell slammed three home runs in a 4-2 victory at Boston, cheered on by his wife, Jan, who'd made the trip eight months pregnant. "Frank took the pressure off of everybody, on the field and off. We started having fun," said Powell, who, with 34 homers and 109 RBIs, finished third in MVP voting behind teammates the media had dubbed the "Swish Family Robinson," Frank and Brooks. In their World Series sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Orioles played error-free ball -- becoming the second team to do so in the Series -- and shut out the Dodgers for the last 33 innings. A slump in 1967 and slow start the next year led new manager Earl Weaver to come in midseason. "Nobody could outmanage Earl," Powell said. The 1969 Orioles won 109 games and finished 19 games on top -- the most since the 1936 Yankees -- before being upset in the World Series by the New York Mets. "We were flat, but the Mets [who'd won 100 games] weren't exactly chopped liver," Powell said. "Back home, there were probably 5,000 people waiting for us at the airport, holding up signs and crying. We stayed there for half an hour, shaking their hands through the fence and crying, too. That's the closest I ever felt to the city of Baltimore." But it's memories of the 1966 Orioles that he holds most dear. Of those 25 players, 17 survive. "I look at the team picture, and the guys who are gone, and my heart just aches," Powell said. "They were part of something really special." mike.klingaman@baltsun.com For year-by-year capsules from the 1960s, click here. (Baltimore Sun file photo)

As the Orioles celebrate their 60th anniversary, Baltimore Sun reporters Mike Klingaman and Dan Connolly talk to some of the signature players in the club's history. Browse images of a key player from each decade to relive the highlights and lowlights. For a look at the year-by-year capsules through Orioles history, click here.